On March 11th, ten students went to Orlando for the FIRST Robotics Competition. There, the ten students set up Team 3242’s new Pit that was donated to us by Mr. and Mrs. Stalnaker. The next day, practice rounds began and the teams rushed to get their robots fixed and perfected. Team 3242 was one of the few teams who were already ready for competition, which showed when we arrived at the first practice round and we were the only robot from our alliance on the floor. Using the day to get ready for qualifications, Team 3242 improved their robot as well as its code and was joined by the rest of the members of Team 3242 by the end of the day. The next day, on March 13th, qualification matches began. Team 3242 started off strong, ranking in the top 20’s; unfortunately, our last round for the day went downhill, the code on the robot had disappeared. We were able to fix it, but we were unable to participate in the match, causing our rank to drop down. The next day was just as unlucky: our USB for the robot’s controller came unplugged in the heat of a match, and the chain had a malfunction right before our last match that made us unable to participate in the round. Both of these events made our rank drop down to rank 30 out of about 60 teams. Not picked for semifinals, Team 3242 packed up to leave for Ocala on March 14th, but we were not coming home empty-handed.

On March 13th, Team 3242 won the Woodie Flowers Award. After Amy Smith submitted a well-detailed and inspiring essay about our former EMIT director, Ms. Brookins won the Woodie Flowers award and will go to St. Louis with Amy to see if they can win the National Woodie Flowers award.